New Places, New Faces

view from behind my house.

So it has been a little over a week since I’ve updated this blog. I’m back in Tamale now after having only been in my district for about a week and already so much has changed. I am no longer afraid of everything, I can take a shared taxi on my own, greet people in very basic Dagbani (the language of the Dagomba tribe, I will be needing to become quite familiar with this in order to really integrate), wander through the market and streets buying what I need, asking for directions and just overall take in my surroundings. It is incredible the difference.
The internet dilemma. It seems I will be able to access the internet reliably once a week. So I’ve set up a format for my blog where I can write most of it out as it is happening to capture the raw experience and then post it when I am online. This will be the basic weekly format:
-I will write a brief summary of what happened the previous week and generally explain where I am in terms of the placement and also my personal headspace.
-the rest will consist of mainly stories as I have experienced them and then journaled them. I thought these categories would be interesting:
∙a few funny stories
∙things that shocked me/really stuck with me
∙signs of hope
To describe the past week:

Tamale to Pong-Tamale:
In country training was now complete. It was time to cut the well-established cords between the 5 pro JFs and send us separately to our placement locations. We were definitely all experiencing separation anxiety. But it had to be done. So we got on buses or lorries or into cabs and off we went!
To describe a little bit of the structure of what I am doing in my placement: I am working with MoFA (the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture) and one of the Agriculture colleges in Ghana. Specifically it is the Veterinarian’s college in the district of Pong-Tamale. The aim of the 5 colleges is to allow its students to graduate as trained Agriculture Extensions Agents (AEAs) and gain employment with MoFA to be able to go out to farmer groups and communicate Agriculture as a business. EWB and MoFA came up with this AAB (agric as a business) curriculum which aims to empower local farmers to take charge of their livelihoods and see them as potential for business and therefore profit and therefore a way out of the poverty trap. At the college level, one of the major problems is that a very low percentage of the graduates actually get employed by MoFA. This leaves qualified, enthusiastic people without an avenue to reach their potential. The objectives for my placement are basically 3-fold:
1- to evaluate and make suggestions to improve the quality of the extension education (what is being taught to the AEAs)
2- to finalize a detailed curriculum of a new course at the college focusing on entrepreneurialism (to promote the majority that do not get jobs with MoFA to recognize their potential as entrepreneurs and to pursue this as a means of income)
3- gap filling at the college. I will be designing, teaching and grading a college level IT course (a little scary lol)



Evan Walsh was the JF who spent the last 4 months in Pong-Tamale piloting the activities at the college. I am coming to replace him as another EWB volunteer. His blog is an interesting prequel to my placement! http://evanoverseas.blogspot.com


So this week was about transitioning. I arrived in Pong-Tamale (I’m going to use PT to make this easier from now on), met Evan and essentially followed his lead. It was awesome to have him there, he taught me more than I think he realizes. He introduced me to key people at the college and also key member of the community. The biggest partner in both of our placement is the now principal of the college, Dr. Eric Bempong (he was formerly the vice but the former principal got a promotion in Accra and so he was promoted!) He and his family are delightful. He is extremely well educated; most of his studies actually took place in Russia and Eastern Europe. I have had my best Ghanaian meals so far thanks to his wife’s cooking, delicious and nut/bean/fish free. My current accommodations are at the former principal’s house which is just a jump away from Dr. Bempong’s house. Well in the dark it’s a little more than a jump…more like an adventure. Wasn’t I surprised when I spent my first night there and as Evan walked me to the house after dinner at Dr. Bempong’s there was a man sitting on a wooden chair like thing sitting outside my new home. Turns out he is the watchman. I have a watchman. He literally sits outside all night and guards me. Not only do I get one of the biggest houses in all of PT but I also get my own nightly bodyguard. When the other principal was still in charge of the school, he lived in the house I am in. Evan lived with him for about a month at the beginning of his placement. The location is quite remote though, it is at the edge of PT, an absolutely beautiful place though, it overlooks this endless green landscape and offers some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. But yes, quite remote. The community is closer to the main road, on the other side of the college. Evan decided he wanted to integrate with the community and went out and found a family to live with. I have now met them many times and they are lovely people. I also would like to live with a family but because of my very real allergy to groundnuts and their very frequent usage of groundnuts, I have to be very careful. I plan on finding a home where I can cook my own food and therefore be safe and not limit the family’s meals. So that sums up my current living situation!


So this week had been basically getting introduced to staff members, taking part in some strategic planning meetings they had and getting my bearings of PT. Knowing where the yam lady is and where to buy phone minutes and where to get tomatoes and okra…all crucial.
So now onto my stories for this week!
Things that stuck with/shocked me:



(1)to relate to all the feelings and hesitations and concerns about actually being in here in Africa:
I just finish a great book, the Poisonwood Bible and had one quote towards the end really stick out. Leah, an American by birth is expressing to her Congolese friend that she is unsure of whether her family should be in the Congo at all and this is what her friend, Anatole, responds: “No you shouldn’t [be in the Congo]. But you are here, so yes, you should be here. There are more words in the world than no and yes.” It just really made me think about things I already knew. None of us can really know what kind of impact we are going to make but we do know we are here and are going to make what we can out of it. It just reminds you that you can’t simplify a complicated situation. After playing ultimate Frisbee I was walking and talking with a girl from the US Peace Corps who has been in Ghana for a few years and actually thinks all foreign volunteers should just leave if Ghana is really to succeed. Yet she is still here working. I haven’t quite sorted all of it out in my head just yet but…yes…development is complicated.


(2)The importance of greetings:
I had been introduced to this idea in Zambia. I don’t know why I was surprised again to see it in Ghana. As I followed Evan around he taught me the basic greetings. Different things to say depending on the time of day, different responses to different greetings, different actions depending on the age and gender of who you are greeting. Everyone greets everyone. Even if you pass by the same people a few times in a day you greet them again. Always a hello of some sort and then followed by a combination or all of the following: how is the journey? How was your sleep? How is your house? How is your husband? How are your kids? How was the market? … and they all sound the same at the beginning... the kids will scream the greetings at you as well because well, we’re a riot to them, they follow you around and squeal whenever you give them attention. Sooo cute. It just made me think though, all these greetings, what affect do they have on how a community interacts. It is like a prerequisite for politeness and acknowledgment of another person being present. I think all of us Canadians can confidently say there has been at least a few occasions in our lives where we’ve wanted to say hi to someone we think we might know but out of shyness or whatever we don’t. I wonder if the absence of greetings makes us keep more to ourselves? Whose stories are we missing by not saying hi? A greeting here is literally an opening to everything, whether you want to ask a question, if you’re lost, if you want to buy something. So step one, master the greetings!

(3) slave camp:
For those of you have read the Book of Negroes well imagine you got to see a part of her journey. We took a trip to Paga, a region about 3 hours north east of pong-tamale. The most well known features of that are include a crocodile pond and a slave camp. The croc pond was awesome. We were completely surrounded at one point, crocs everywhere. You kinda want to scream but then think hmmm will they just then move closer? We took pictures with the biggest one and then watched it devour a chick. More like swallow it without chewing. It was still squawking in fact….as a touristy thing to do, the pond was really cool. The slave camp though, wow. Look at the pictures of it, basically it was in like a field like area but with huge rocks and ledges and stuff. A typical day in the life of a slave at this slave camp: they would be tied in groups of like 20 or so to a tree and that’s how they would remain all day. Then around supper time they would be untied and led to the eating area which consisted of sitting on rocks and eating out of the bowls which had been dug into the rocks (this one a mild form of punishment, digging these “bowls” into the rocks). Their water source was this crazy spring hole thing in the rocks…see pictures. After dinner they then moved about 10 feet over and the musically inclined were selected to sing and bang small rocks on the large rocks for rhythm. There were some locals who performed for us while we were there, the lyrics of one of the songs saying how they are hoping their lives will be better once they have left this place and they are looking forward to going wherever it is this journey will take them so they can better themselves and even start forming their own communities. Propaganda lyrics?! Next was the meeting place where announcements were made and where the slaves were sold. After being sold they had to then walk for about a month and a half to where they were going to be actually transported. Often there was absolutely no food given to them so they would just have to eat berries and such if they were lucky enough to have been sold during the rainy season. We then continued walking to the “watchtower” which you had to climb a tree and some huge boulders to get to the top. It wasn’t a tower; it was just large rocks that overlooked the entire slave camp. And that was the idea. They would get a local person to sit up there and make sure no slaves were trying to escape. And then we were showed what happened if you did try and escape. The mass graves were next to the watchtower. They would just dig a big hole and bury everyone that died that day together. And then mark that place with a stone so when they went back the day after they wouldn’t dig up the bodies they just buried. Right next to the graves was the “punishment rock”. My camera batteries had died at this point but picture a round boulder the size of a normal recycling bin. Then squeeze in the bottom of the boulder as this indent was made by the chains around the person’s hands and legs. And the top of the boulder was sort of flat so you could sit on it. They would make the punished person sit there naked except for leaves of their private parts all day. They would be facing the sun and not allowed to close their eyes or blink. So the sun would literally scorch them and they would be getting whipped at the same time. And all their friends and fellow slaves would be forced to watch as to prevent them from misbehaving in the same way. It was pretty crazy. At a first glance the whole area looks like nothing more than a collection of rocks, trees and grass but it was eerie. You could almost feel the history of the land as you stood there. I’m not even sure what to say about it except that it just made me really sad. This actually happened. Aren’t we all humans?

(4) one week, two dead goats
First one: something that I actually expected thanks to my experience in Zambia was to be woken up at all kinds of hours of the night and morning to a whole symphony of animals. And Ghana so far has not disappointed. A few days ago though the loudest noise to come through was that of a goat. I honestly thought it was a child at first but then went outside and saw a goat lying down making noise. It is a common thing, goats and sheep, they are often outside my house, in groups, always giving me looks like “what are you doing exactly?” Judgment stares. Anyways so that afternoon, I get a knock on my door, it is Abremani and George, local guys who are really friendly and helpful and have come to replace a light. So I’m chatting with them and then notice the same goat as I saw that morning in about 5 feet from where is was. Except now there are flies around it and it is dead. I ask the boys out of shock “is it dead?’ and they just laugh and say “yes yes” and Abremani proceeds to pick it up by 3 legs and disposes of it in the bush. And that was that.
Second: Evan and I were sitting on benches at the edge of the main road waiting for a taxi to get to Tamale. A baby goat starts to cross the street and immediately gets hits by a car. The goat flies and lands in the middle of the road, the car keeps on driving. An elder yells to a younger boy who then bikes into the street, grabs the goat by the legs and bikes off with it. Meanwhile the mother goat is going crazy. No one even flinched meanwhile I was sitting there with my jaw dropped.
I guess the observation I had of myself with regards to both these events is that I’m not used to death. It is a big deal to me… but here it is a way of life. Maybe after I kill my own chicken for dinner I will understand where the perceived apathy comes from. But even just thinking about it again makes me a little wide-eyed.

(5) chewing on metal
The first part of this story was actually pretty neat. Evan needed to get the inner tube replaced in one of the tires of his bike. Where would you go for that? He simply asked his host brother who then took his bike to the mechanic as we and about 10 kids followed. None of the local people that were around the mechanic’s area spoke English and..well.. “replace the inner tube please” was not in Dagbani for beginners. But somehow it all got done. By pointing and gesturing the tire was removed, a little boy was sent to get a new inner tube and everything was put back into working order. The shocking part for me happened while we were waiting and watching the tube being replaced. The children that had followed us were now sitting on the ground playing with each other and kind of looking at us and laughing periodically. There was one little girl who was so cute. Then she put a dirty bean pod in her mouth. And I cringed knowing that the floor is full of dirt, goat and chicken poop, children pee and poop, mud, garbage etc etc. Then she put that down and picked up a piece of metal and put it in her mouth! Aie! But what do you do? All the kids are dirty and putting things in their mouths, just being kids. Many are without pants sitting butt-naked on the dirty floor. I am nowhere close to having kids but my instincts just from intrinsic knowledge of sanitation were to want to take that piece of metal out of her mouth. And the parents are nearby; it just isn’t something that is an issue. It just reminded me of trying to convince someone to wash their hands. If you don’t believe that there are tiny organisms that you can’t see that can make you sick, why would you think to wash your hands? Until the understanding that the chronic diarrhea your child is facing is directly related to lack of hand washing between bathroom and meals has happened, there can be no motivation for behaviour change.

(6) 23 years old
where have you been in the world?
Me: Canada, USA, Australia/NZ, Europe, Asia, Africa ….
Ruth: never been further South than Tamale and never been out of Ghana.
We are both 23 years old. Ruth is the secretary at the college; she is lots of fun to talk to and accompanied us along with Dr. Bempong to Paga. Her English is very good and I therefore ask her millions of questions. She knows so much about her culture and about Northern Ghana. But her reality is so different from mine. I might have mentioned this before but Paga is on the border of Ghana and Burkina Faso and so when were there I asked if she had ever been to Burkina. No. Never been outside of Ghana. Never been even to the South of her own country. But she would love to. She asks all kinds of questions about “the place that I come from”. Her curiosity is there as much as mine is but the opportunities are definitely not.
Evan introduced me to these wonderful things called TED talks. Check them out. Specifically check out the one with Patrick Awuah speaking. He talks about the need for leadership in Africa. He says only 5% of Ghanaians receive a tertiary education. Tertiary like the college I will be teaching at. Only 5%. Another interesting stat I learnt this week: the average ratio of books to students in America is 30:1. In Ghana it is 1:1. And often that book is not a relevant book; it is a donated book that is valued because at least it is a book.
Baaaaa we all live in the same world!!!



A funny story:
Biking. Nothing like in Canada. We have hybrids, mountains, road, and every variety in between. How heavy is your bike? What kind of derailer does it have? Bahaha. Mine is a fine looking green machine handed down to me from Evan who inherited it from the former principal of the college. First off, thank you Dad for teaching me how to ride a bike. And not just ride a bike but have the confidence to get on one even when falling was a probable possibility. The confidence is what told me to get on it when all I wanted to do was drop it and run. First challenge is getting the bike out of the compound. I already look cool. Then I say hello to the man who is eating (he’s just finished chopping down a tree with his machete) and realize I have an audience comprising of children and adults all waiting to see what the funny “soumilinga”(white person) is going to do. I have no idea which way to go, I’m in between huts and little sewer streams, goats, chickens, burnt piles of garbage and children. Deep breath! Wait not too deep because as you’ll quickly learn you probably don’t want your lungs full of whatever scent is in the air. Not like riding a bike at home. It’s too big, I’m too nervous and the whole thing just is funny so I just smile and take off! And try to greet people as I pass. The paths are narrow and water-logged as it just rained that morning…I have no idea how my green machine will manage in the muck but I go straight for it. All of a sudden I am acutely aware of the deficiencies in the road and have a new found admiration for the fellow on his bike coming towards me with branches sticking out the sides and parcels hanging off everywhere. He practically waves at me with both hands as I fumble to remember it is the right hand I need to use out of respect while narrowly avoiding the baby goat and unforeseen dip in the red earth. It was not my nicest wave but he finds it funny and lance Armstrong’s his way past me chuckling. I make it home and take the package off the back filled with things Evan will no longer be needed but I might (malaria meds, Band-Aids etc) which was held on with a long piece of what looks like swimming goggle rubber. I made it without embarrassing myself too much. Never have I been more conscious of riding a bike. Oh and my troops of goats is there to judge my less than graceful arrival. I nearly curtsied for them.


A story that gives hope:
The one I want to share is that of Evan. While sharing a loaf of tea bread and draining water sachets, we got to talking about how we got involved in EWB, how we ended up in PT. He is from the University of Newfoundland chapter. He told me this amazing story about this ad he saw with Bono and the white Make Poverty History bracelets while he was in high school. It was saying to check out the events near you and so he clicked on the link. He noticed there was no event happened in St. John’s and decided he wanted to change that. One thing led to another and well he was the catalyst that made something happen. It is a much longer and more eventful story but it was just that he simply saw something, wondered why part of it was missing and just decided he would change that. People like him are what give me hope. So thank you Evan 

So that pretty much sums up the past week. New faces, new places and everything in between!